Game Over?

Sometimes the decline of a business enters a spiral. Conditions in the marketplace change. New competitors emerge. Poor trading conditions lead to disappointing revenues. Cash flow dries up. Suppliers become reluctant to supply. Shareholders begin to pull out, and it gets progressively harder to raise finance to reverse the decline. That seems to be a fair summary of the current woes of Game Group, which is looking increasingly like the latest casualty on the troubled UK High Street.

According to the Guardian and BBC, the Game Group have issued a warning to their shareholders that it is on the brink of collapse. The value of the company’s shares has fallen to a penny.

But Game desperately need cash, just to pay the rent on their stores. With the picture so bleak, many suppliers are refusing to stock the firm with the latest new titles – a move which effectively finishes the business off. Game publishers have withdrawn their latest hits from sale at Game over fears they will not be able to reclaim the stock if the company goes bust.

Game’s woes have largely been caused by its failure to keep up with fast-moving internet retailers and supermarkets, who often sold titles as loss leaders to tempt people in to buy less popular older games. The industry is also moving away from physical games to rapidly growing, and highly profitable, digital downloads. Instead of splashing out £40 on a video game CD for a £200 console, increasing numbers of consumers opt for 69p smartphone apps such as Angry Birds.

With debts high and losses mounting, it’s hard to see the way forwards for the company. A take-over or buy-out looks unlikely, since according to this BBC video clip, Game is ‘at end of queue for rescuers’.

Tom White

Join the tutor2u Business team for a resource-packed day designed to fast-track your lesson planning and preparation for the new Edexcel A Level Business specification. We'll look at the key changes in teaching content, explore the new challenges of teaching this linear specification and dive into some brand new teaching resources designed specifically for the new Edexcel A Level Business course from September 2015.

Teaching & learning products

This resource comprises a complete collection of editable worksheets that that enable students to practice all elements of the quantitative and data analysis skills required by the Year 1 (AS) teaching content.

Our 20 page quick revision guide to all the key topics for AQA AS Business Studies Unit 1 (BUSS1). Enables students to cover the all the essential knowledge quickly. Also includes extensive advice on applying the theory to the BUSS1 exam studies.